A Selfless Demon
by MisterMediocre
Summary: Arrancar Ichigo!AU. Once a Gillian. Once an Adjuchas. Devastating power takes shape with a hole through its heart and a nature sparsely seen among its kind, strength rarely seen. It's something truly terrifying - A Hollow with the willpower of a Human.
1. The Birth

I would like to firstly thank anyone for giving this story a once over. It's one of a couple projects I have had in mind for a while and finally I feel comfortable in starting it.

It will be an Arracar Ichigo AU, but not like those where Ichigo embraces his Hollow powers or anything - admittedly, that was one - But I wanted to do something else. With Thousands of fics it is not like this will be anything original, but I hope to make it mine and something enjoyable.

Arrancar Ichigo, Smarter Ichigo. There will be a bit of romance, but I cannot say for sure with whom. This chaoter isnon the shorter side, but it has been a terribly long time since I wrote any bit of fanfiction and I wanted to ease into it. They will improve.

And maybe this doesn't pan out, but I have more ideas, and perhaps you may read those as well.

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 _'So much ... Happened... so hungry... Now... so much noise...'_ The time before was a blur of carnage, of writhing cannibalistic madness with only one sole intent across every bleak mind - Eat. Even now, with every lost soul coalesced into one titanic form, that was all every soul could feel, think.

Eat, devour, consume... ' _Then eat... Stop... Talk... Just eat...'_

The tower of black writhed among its brethren. The long-nosed white mask that marks it as the foot soldier Menos Grande begins to liquify and shift, change shape among the aimless mass of the Menos Forest far, far below the vast sands. In the darkness, not a mindless, towering figure cares as the one bumps and jostles the rest. The collar of protruding spikes shifts, blooms, and a thick collar of white fur encompasses the black robed body.

' _Shut uuup... Shut up...'_

All definition becomes a mass of white goo, and as quickly as all detail faded it became to take new form. The shape took on one rounder, oblong, where instead of two small eyeholes for a piercing red gaze, two almond shaped holes took shape and two long, sharp angled horns protruded from the sides, pointing inward just slightly. Given new form, the Gillian remains motionless, with only the constant movement of the rest of the lumbering giants making it sway.

' _Just be quiet... All of you... want... I... I want to eat in peace'_ A single soul found itself at the forefront.

Piercing yellow eyes come to life in the hollow eyes and the body twists toward the nearest Menos Grande. A jagged line cracked across the front of the devilish mask and a mouth of jagged teeth opened wider and wider! The hungering cavern enclosed around the top half of another Gillian's head and bit down! The mask shattered like bone and what was eaten whole in a moment. The towering, lanky body swung around and the unique Menos Grande swiped another hefty chunk of matter from the arm and billowing robe of another, his horns catching the body and swinging it around to use as a bludgeon against more! He took a killer bite out of another. Before the first casualty even dissolved into particulate too.

Feeding frenzy was riling up the rest of the Menos Forest, drawing the eyes of many and what little ire such simple minded amalgamations could feel, triggering some sort of survival instinct in all of the tens of thousands of hungering souls that comprised any one. They were a lumbering sea, hardly able to move around one another , and that gave the center of their attention

' _Must eat... So hungry... Grow stronger...!'_ With a monstrous roar, the mold-breaking Menos reared back and gathered crimson spiritual power between its horns and fired a single powerful blast through several of its kind, carving a path of destruction through masks and heads and the many stone pillars across the dark, dank expanse of their home. Teeth bared, hunger never growing sated and only stronger, the killing spree began. One long fingered hand emerged from beneath its robe, a cuff of black fur around the wrist, and it grabbed another of its own by the face and in an instant squeezed, cracked and crushed its skull, dragging the handful of mask and black matter back to its mouth while the chosen Gillian dissolved.

Cero were fired in retaliation and the aberrant Gillian dodged. Avoidance for it was merely leaning away in time given the slow charge of each powerful spiritual beam. The attack passed, many a Menos Grande was left scarred and dying in the path of the crimson blast, and the unique Gillian continued to feed undeterred.

Bite after bite, devouring portions of the masses, if not outright killing them as its jagged teeth found the mask. Their towering body of many would break and crumble into hundreds upon hundreds of smaller Hollow, comparable to ants among the feet of humans and crushed like such as they tried to scatter.

Many just looked on without doing a thing despite the danger, only one or two of the simpleminded Menos Grande tried to eat before being eaten, but they were eaten regardless of fruitless effort. Torn apart by teeth or by hands, their spiritual power became one with the aberrant.

' _Will grow strong... Must... eat_...' This being of destruction and endless hunger for souls and power, a sore thumb among the cookie cutter crowd of towering foot soldier Hollow, devoured and ate and gorged, for minutes and hours and days on end. All while repeating this very mantra within the depths of its collective being until every soul fell in line with the word of the one at the helm. All of them until the tens of thousands of voices coalesced into one. That one voice called to eat and eat, and the Gillian would rampage on end.

Until finally, that ravenous desire to dine and sate, quell in some small part, the burning hunger, disappeared in an instant.


	2. To the World Above

The support and the favs and follows were more than I expected to see for such a small chapter, essentially one to test the waters and thank you all for that. Got a couple comments suggesting Pairings and I am looking at quite a bit. That's all I would like to say and that any shipping will happen when it happens ^^

For this chapter, I apologize if Ichigo's current nameless status and my attempt (I may have missed some somewhere) to use non-gender pronouns gets a bit confusing. I really tried to comb through and solve the issue. I will address the character as Ichigo, because we all know it is, but they do not. It's for story reasons.

Three times the word count here and was originally much shorter. I add a bit more to spice things up.

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The aberrant Gillian deviated from the rest of the lumbering masses of the Forest leaving a void that was quickly filled at its back. Fueled by a burning, intense hunger and sheer bestial tenacity, the Gillian with a horned mask tore a path of death and partially eaten meals through the sea of its fellow Menos Grande. Kill, Devour, Grow. It ate its brethren without skipping a beat. Eventually, there was no Menos left in its path and, with a couple dozen kills behind it, it found no need to turn around.

It walked for some time, hardly every moving to avoid the stone pillars and simply crashing through them without missing a step. There came a time when the aberrant stopped. 'I... I feel... No more hunger' All at once the towering body clad in black twisted violently, the horned mask being swallowed up by the lengthening pillar, the fur collar too, and all at once it collapsed and formed a perfect, solid black sphere that was four meters tall from base to crown. The daunting spiritual pressure that came off the aberrant disappeared entirely and with the vanishing of its presence came with a flood of smaller, normal Hollows coming out of the darkness like roaches to a curiosity.

They slowly approached, watched, hissed and murmured around one another. Was this the evolution? None had ever bore witness to the event of a Menos Grande, a foot soldier, taking that next great step to become a greater creature. Or was this an odd death, the hunger too much to bear? One Hollow slowly skittered forward on its six crustacean legs and reached forward just as the sphere was in its reach.

A hand reached back.

From inside the black came a white skinned hand with fingers tipped by crimson claws. All but the pointer curled in and, with just a flick of the wrist, it ran across the neck of the paralyzed Hollow. The hand reached up and palmed the face and popped off the head easily with the neck having been severed cleanly. They rest watched in such horror they were shaking as the head was drawn back into the black and Crunch!

The black orb was torn apart and what was inside was revealed to them. Give or take, roughly four meters tall. Chalk white skin streaked with red markings mirror on the left and right sides. Thick muscle, a veritable plumage of spikes on his shoulders, with short curved blade protrusions on his forearms and shins, elbows and knees too. A tail, thick at his spine, extended down to the ground to drag a bit and came to end with a fine tip. The mask of the same type as its previous Gillian form, with a more human, skeletal shape for the head.

"Nn... Hhaaa..." The newly formed Adjuchas breathed a sigh with no mouth to breath through. For a moment, they simply shifted around a bit. Rolling a shoulder, sliding their tail across the cold stone floor of the forest, tilting and turning their head, much in the way of a newborn learning, becoming aware, of itself. Its head tilted back and black sockets stared up at the shadowy expanse over his head.

A bright red spark burst between its horns and scarlet reiryoku gathered, built, into a bigger and bigger spinning mass of energy. The Cero fired with force enough that there was a small sound burst and the ground under its clawed feet cracked! The beam soared upward and erupted high, high above in a large, briefly crimson burst. The very forest shook with its impact and as the rubble began to cascade down the Adjuchas made its move. It crouched down and leapt with great power! The newly formed being bounced from thin pillar to thin pillar, never for a moment losing speed or force even as the mineral towers cracked and broke behind them.

The light of its self-made tunnel was growing brighter. "Rrh...!" In mid air, there was a brief moment where its feet felt a solid presence and it used that to fly upward with a launch akin to its first! Head first, they dove into a thick blanket of sand from underneath and burst outward.

The Adjuchas simply walked from the hole it had created, one that was steadily increasing in size with no stone floor, forming a sinkhole in the desert down to the home of the weak. It never looked back, the horned Adjuchas, and simply looked around in all directions from the peak of the tallest dune, or the nearest, at the seemingly endless desert. A few odd, scraggily "trees" dotted the landscape, little else beyond that.

"This is Hueco Mundo.." It growled, the name of its home naturally embedded in its mind from the many souls that comprised it. Still, it could feel them... But they, their souls, were quiet. No screaming, no clawing, no striving for control. They were content to be, it seemed, until they were not and this soul, its soul, was the only one left to be. This was fine. The horned Adjuchas wanted to be, to have this power... For what reason though, it could not figure out.

"So much sand..." It murmured, just looking around until it focused on their own feet, the grains of sand still rolling away from the soles.

It took a leap, hitting the sand some several meters away, and started at a casual walk. It had no destination, no aim, not even the same kind of maddening, driving hunger that spurred its slaughter before. Its first thought in this new state was to free itself from the darkness, and did so. Now, what was left but to wander and find a home?

In every direction, they could feel a presence, a blip on the radar worth taking note of. Spiritual pressures that were immense enough to be felt at such a distance in waves. Some were moving fast, lumbering at a pace like their own.

The Adjuchas almost almost missed several these were so much greater, so intriguing and even... Terrifying. Never had it felt fear before, but simply focusing on those particular pressures for too long and the Adjuchas felt a twinge of fight. A need to dash as far away from all of them, those beings that spelled certain death and they refused to stay too close lest they be discovered and killed. They felt it, but never once acted on those instinctual feelings and these feelings were ultimately suppressed. For reasons they could not understand, they refused to run.

So distracted, they nearly missed the approaching presence. The nameless Hollow snapped to and raised their arms against a lightning quick attack and was sent skidding back across the dunes, leaving a trail of quickly drying blood drops. It looked at the lanky, skeletal Adjuchas with a mask bearing four vertical slits, whose arms were nearly the length of its body and the blade like claws it sported made up for the rest.

"Die for the King, you foolish mongrel," He raised his arms out and its long, clawed fingers. The horned Adjuchas was more preoccupied with its bleeding arms and inspecting them, the blood. Almost too focused once again, but its tail lashed out in time and caught the charge of yet another Adjuchas, one far wider and just as tall as it, and steered the steer Hollow off course of its charge. It kept going and going, circling back around and gaining speed. The Bull Hollow snorted steam and rushed at an incredible speed. Their opponent caught his next charge by the horns, but their feet could catch no purchase on the sands! Back and back the lone Adjuchas against growing odds was pushed back until the bull suddenly stopped charging and reared back, yanking their prey into the air, "Edorad!"

The nameless Adjuchas looked up, past its airborne feet, as the heat and light grew vastly more intense and a far larger foe was hurtling down toward them with large fists ablaze with red hot flame! "Yahahaha!" A worm-like Hollow burst up from the sands, mask partly wrapped in cloth, aimed with a mouthful of rows of squared, gear shaped teeth at the torso of the horned Adjuchas! "Tch..."

They thought fast and fought back faster. They tightened their grip on the Bull's horns and twisted, pulling the Hollow around and taking him to the ground. Drawing the legs in at the same time, they hopped up, twisting their body, with both feet launched forward and their double kick collided with the flaming hammer fists about to crash down. It was a small boom, the collision of feet and fists throwing up sand around them. The larger Adjuchas was thrown back, burning fires dispersed and large hands thrown into the air by the counterattack, "No way!"

The worm Hollow was smacked by the tail, whipped aside and sent tumbling across the desert sand with one powerful smack. All in one motion, and with the trio attack diverted, the lone Adjuchas leapt away to put ground between itself and its attackers. A flash of red caught the corner of its socket and a Gillian stood by some meters away charging a cero while they followed its movement.

"Five... I just want to find a place to sit and think...! Back off!" Their hollow eye sockets sparked yellow and their fist a bright red. They slid to a stop and delivered a snap punch to the air and fired another bolt of red energy that tore through the air beyond the speed others could follow. A Gillian especially had no chance of dodging. Their mask disappeared, obliterated, as a gaping hole through and through was left in its place.

"Nakeem!" The bull and worm Adjuchas roared, before simultaneously firing Cero out of rage that their opponent nimbly dodged.

"Haah... This is becoming such a pain in the ass," The Horned Adjuchas growled, yellow glints sparking in the black sockets of its mask. Hesitation, instinctual fear shot through the four Adjuchas that faced it, and all action ceased for a few long seconds.

"Who the Hell told you idiots to attack?" A gruff voice spoke up. A sleek form, smaller than the rest of the Adjuchas that had been doing battle so far, strode between their legs toward the Horned Adjuchas and simply shouldered past their leg. Cat-like, white segmented armor, black paws and electric blue eyes over permanently bared, menacing teeth. Those eyes briefly glanced at the Adjuchas his followers had attacked. Into those dark sockets and he scoffed.

"Like this piece of shit would do anything to enhance my power. I'm not hungry as it is.." The Panther Hollow told them.

"But, Lord Grimmjow-" The lanky Adjuchas tried to interject, only to be cut off by a sharp burst of spiritual pressure that pulsed out from their proclaimed King.

"Name." He called back to horned Adjuchas.

"Don't have one."

"Next time, it'll be Meal, regardless." The was no reply from the horned Adjuchas, "The name is Grimmjow. I'll be the King of Hueco Mundo. I catch of a whiff of that weak stench coming off you and you'll be another stepping stone under me."

Grimmjow's subordinates, now minus one Gillian, were taken aback and followed their King's casual stride with cries of shock and questions of "Why the Hell are you just walking away?" From the large worm Hollow whose mask was partially wrapped in cloth, and "We can kill him! For you! You have to become a Vasto Lordes, Grimmjow!" From the bull. It was the other two, to follow without a word.

"Di Roy, Ylfordt, don't be fools," The skeletal one of the two stated, "Our King is well on his way. This one is not needed. Only threats need be killed and this one is an insignificant as these grains of sand we walk on."

"But... Nakeem!" Ylfordt continued to try as the wormling Hollow, Di Roy, bowed his head.

"Was a Gillian. Weak. He couldn't survive in this place, simple," The bulkier Adjuchas was less eloquent, but just as blunt. "Let's go. Either one of you might be next." As much as the bull Hollow wanted to fight, to maim this bastard, Ylfordt found their previous prey to be walking away. He and Di Roy, with little in the way of options, followed their group, the one they called their King.

"What will you do if he grows stronger, Grimmjow?" The one known as Shawlong asked.

"Kill'im. Vasto Lordes, Arrancar.. I don't give a fuck. I'm the strongest there is. I will be King, I will always be greater." The four-legged Adjuchas out if the frustration and teeth-gritting annoyance it felt. Head lowering, shoulders rising, Grimmjow's anger became visible as a bright blue aura around their body. "Next time, I ain't holding back."


End file.
